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Irregular Verbs

Average: 4 (11 votes)
Mon, 07/27/2009 - 00:09 — Chris McCarthy

Verbs are a very important part of learning English since every sentence must contain a subject and a verb. In addition to the base form of a verb, each verb has four principal parts which must be learned. The four principal parts are:

  1. Third person singular present tense – ends in "s".
  2. Present participle – ends in "ing".
  3. Past participle – regular form ends in "ed", irregular forms vary.
  4. Simple past – regular form ends in "ed", irregular forms vary.

As you can see, two of the four principal parts have irregular forms. Let's see how well you know the principal parts of the verbs used in the following exercise.

By Thomas Williams

Thomas Williams is a teacher at EC San Diego

Link: Learn Word Forms

Now choose the correct sentence:

  • 1. Yesterday we ___ a picture of our family on the wall.




  • 2. We have never ___ any pictures in the office.




  • 3. I read in the paper that a man ___ himself in jail last week.




  • 4. Because of the death penalty, criminals have been ___




  • 5. Have you ever ___ off a cliff into the ocean?




  • 6. She has never ___ that song before.




  • 7. My brother needed to buy his ticket so I ___ him $300.00.




  • 8. Our teacher had ___ us home before the game started.




  • 9. The little girl ___ when she heard the news.




  • 10. Last summer we ___ in a pool that was heated.




  • 11. They have already ___ all their money.




  • 12. By the time help arrives, the boat will have ___




  • 13. She ___ the same hat last year.




  • 14. After the fight, he realized his shirt was ___




  • 15. The door ___ open from the strong gust of wind.




  • 16. I have ___ 20 miles so far today.




  • 17. The sun ___ at 6:45 this morning.




  • 18. The firefighter ___ the flag at 6:45 this morning.




  • 19. You really ___ a lot at the party last night.




  • 20. Have you ever ___ a mixed drink before?








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Comments

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 03:03 — mimoza8882

oh i cant understand why we

oh i cant understand why we use ''hanged'' in sentences 3 and 4, 'cause the verb hang : hang-hung-hung and i don't see hanged, help me please, thanks

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 06:39 — over

rise/raise and hung/hanged

About hung/hanged see this article.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/hanged.html

It's a very intresting lesson! I didn't understand the difference between rise/raise and hung/hanged before.

I hung a photo of the president on the wall.
But
The criminals was hanged.

To raise my skill.
But
To rise from the dead.

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 06:34 — altaf

a doubt

I always make mistake on swim.
Is it swim-swam-swum. in 10th example
why you say it's swam. I had a doubt in usage
Why can't we use swum instead of swam.
Pl help me Chris

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 07:20 — grivna

Hi altaf,

You are right, it's swim-swam-swum. But the sentence is in the past, there is no trace of Past Participle, so the right answer is "swam".

"I swam a lot last year."

For the p.p. example I can say:

"I have never swum in the ocean."

Take care of yourself!

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 09:28 — Chris McCarthy

swim, swan, swum

In this sentence we need the simple past tense: swam. We are talking about an event that happened last summer.

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 06:45 — Serge

I don't know the word

I don't know the word 'hanged' as well.

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 07:15 — grivna

2/20 - not so good

But I made one mistake with that "hung", and another difficulty was "swung".
Thanks a lot, hopefully I'll do better the next lesson!

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 09:16 — Kurtan

thank you for the lesson

my score is 16/20 four mistakes I think its good

Tue, 07/28/2009 - 06:00 — pitchpotch

... might help:

to hang(sth)-hung-hung
to hang (someone)-hanged-hanged
to dive-dived-dived
to sing-sang-sung
to lend-lent-lent
to drive-drove-driven
to weep-wept-wept
to swim-swam-swum
to spend-spent-spent
to sink-sank-sunk
to wear-wore-worn
to tear-tore-torn
to swing-swung-swung
to run-ran-run
to rise-rose-risen
to drink-drank-drunk

Tue, 07/28/2009 - 17:58 — Alissa

5 mistakes (((

5 mistakes Sad(((

Wed, 07/29/2009 - 01:27 — miguel89

This senteces are very difficult for me

hey almost all my answer was bad i don't understand it's so hard
Miguel Alvarez
Managua, Nicaragua

Thu, 07/30/2009 - 19:35 — Yura

Nice Lesson( thanks pitchpotch)

I thought that I had known irregular verbs, But I made 5 mistakes: Worried
Hang - hung -hung
Hang - hanged - hanged
Dive - dived - dived
Swing - swung - swung
Thank you for the lesson Smile
Thank you, Pitchpotch(for your list of verbs) Love Struck

Mon, 08/03/2009 - 13:21 — fahima1987

I confused the past & past

I confused the past & past perfect tense of hang.should they be HUNG & HANG or HANGED & HUNG accordingly?

Tue, 08/25/2009 - 17:03 — Natalysmart

Nataly It's very interesting

Nataly
It's very interesting lesson, I've just understood the difference hung and hanged, I've never known it before, thanks a lot

Wed, 09/23/2009 - 14:16 — only bendol

It's a good exercise but i'm not good

Confused until now i'm still confused. I didn't get a good score out of this excercise. It's really hard for me. I need to work hard on this part of English so i need more exercises.....
swim, swam, swum
hang, hung, hung
drink, drank, drunk
gushhhhhhhhhh y it's so hard to understand it... am i that slow learner???

Mon, 10/26/2009 - 02:08 — geofatma

yeah, i was in a need of

yeah, i was in a need of such good lesson, it was very useful and gorgeous.
thank you Chris.